nuary 20, 1S63. ] 



JOTJKNAL OF HO^IICL'LTURE AND COTTAGE GAKDENEB. 



Gl 



f space be dispensed with ; but for the rapid and abundant 

 iuction of wax, both are required, aud the Professor thinks 

 ; pollen is much more extensively used in the process than is 

 erally supposed. — (Prairie Farmer.) 



Prof. Leuckart is a distinguished physiologist, but is not a 

 keeper. If he really has expressed the opinion ascribed to 

 , (of which, however, I have seen no notice in the German 

 Journal), I should most respectfully venture to differ from 

 i. — A Devonshire Bee-eeepee.] 



ESEETION OF HIVES AND ITS CAUSES. 



HIS is notoriously both a dull and a gay season. In the outer 

 Id of nature — in mountain, field, and garden, all is desolation, 

 3m, and silence. Everything without — earth, ocean, and eky 

 11 participate in the same dismal aspect. The sun, shrouded 

 iombre livery, sheds his feeble rays obliquely through the 

 ise vapours that surround the horizon, while Boreas sweeps 

 b withering blast o'er hill and dale. 



" All bleak and cismal look the naked wood?, 

 The fields are stript of all their gay attire, 

 Peal with load noise the cataract's heaving floods, 

 Nature herself seems almost to expire I " 



es ! It is only in the soeial intercourse of friends — in the 

 drawing-room of fashion, or around the domestic hearths of 

 many happy homes of " merry England " that we must look 

 his season for much of pleasure or amusement ; in short, it 

 nly in the communities of men, aud not in the communities 

 iees, that we are to expect any signs of social activity or joyous 

 lifestations of life. 



t such a time as this, amid the warm greetings and hilarities 

 i festive season, the apiarian is apt to forget his numerous 

 rge in the cold silent garden ; or, if his footsteps chance to 

 y, as mine are apt to do from habit, to the apiary-site, he 

 only give utterance in measured plaint to the first words of 

 lebrated poem " How still and peaceful is the" — little bee ! 

 1. short time ago I looked into the garden of au apiarian 

 nd, who expressed a desire that I should see his stock. The 

 was comparatively mild — the thermometer standing at 52° 



we found the bees partially astir, availing themselves of 

 privilege, so seldom afforded at this season of the year, in 



■ northern climate and in a large town locality, of exercising 

 ir bodily functions. Side by side in the apiary stood the 

 ow-banded Italian and the old English. Eew bees appeared 

 ut the former; but an adjacent stock of the latter showed a 

 isiderable muster. At the first glance a curious phenomenon 

 sented itself to my notice. A considerable moiety of those 

 ung from the English stock were Italians ; and having directed 

 friend's attention to this fact, he at once branded the 

 signers as the most arrant thieves imaginable, and insinuated 

 t, in imitation of their lords, but after a different fashion, 

 y were no doubt interchanging the civilities of the season bv 

 ering wholesale from their neighbours' repositories. " Not so," 

 qplied ; " those are not the motions or habitudes of robber- 

 They must have deserted from your Italian stock, 

 ernised with the English, and are now become completely 

 aestieated." "Impossible!" "Well, let us see." We ex- 

 ined the interior forthwith, and found it was even so. Of 

 se exposed to our view, twenty per cent were of the Italian 

 e ! To this little incident the following remarks on " Desertion 



1 Its Causes " owe their origin : — 



Dn the subject of desertion I will be as brief as possible, and 

 1 rapidly run over a few cases which have come under my own 

 nervation, and cursorily allude to some of those chronicled by 

 PBS. 



Desertion of bees from their own hives may arise from various 

 tses, some very trivial in themselves, and others of more 

 oortance. Some cases are quite easily understood, while others 

 more obscure and less definable in their origin and character, 

 hall refer to each of these, though not perhaps in the order 

 « stated. 



The simplest forms of desertion are such as occur in the 

 vly-hived swarm, when, if by some casualty it loses its queen, 

 1 whole bees will, as a matter of course, return in a body to the 

 ■ent hive. The next form of desertion may be illustrated in 

 I case of a hive being found in early spring minus its queen, 

 e desertion in this case is frequently slow and gradual, and the 

 y outward evidence which even the most observant apiarian 

 y sometimes have of the fact, will be the noticing for a con- 



siderable time afterwards, farina-laden bees enter the qneenless 

 hive, speedily come out again, re-enter perhaps several times, 

 then tly away, and finally go into some neighbouring hive 

 to which they have before allied themselves. No doubt, in a 

 case of this kind some bees may perish abroad, and some in 

 vainly endeavouring to gain admission to an unfriendly neigh- 

 bour ; but others are evidently more fortunate. I need scarcelv 

 remark to the experienced apiarian, that when such strange 

 vagaries are exhibited by the bees of any hives, they may be 

 considered as bad omens regarding the state aud condition of 

 that hive. I will afterwards show that in the case of queenless 

 hives in autumn the same results will not follow like causes. 



Another curious form of desertion, partial in its character, oc- 

 curred some years ago with mjself. In my apiary stood in summer 

 a stock teeming with a superabundant population. The bees 

 hung in masses around and about the hive ; but they were 

 unprepared to swarm, and therefore during the heat of the day 

 they felt uncomfortably oppressed and restive. At noon I re- 

 moved this hive for some contemplated experiment ; but changing 

 my purpose, I again replaced it on its old stance. It had only 

 been removed for a few minutes when the bees, returning from 

 the fields, found their way into a neighbouring hive, which they 

 entered with a loud humming noise. When I replaced the hive 

 on its stance there was no great disposition manifested by these 

 wanderers to return again. The consequence was, that a perfect 

 rush from the dense clusters hanging around the returned hive 

 took place which I in vain endeavoured to quell ; and nearly the 

 whole outlying bees, attracted by thehummings of their associates 

 in the adjacent hive, deserted into it, and permanently allied 

 themselves to its unresisting population. The stock which 

 received this unlooked-for accession of bees was thereafter con- 

 verted from a comparatively weak colony to one of extraordinary 

 industry and vigour. This form of desertion, though partial and 

 altogether peculiar in itself, arose from a cause purely incidental, 

 nevertheless, I am the more desirous to notice it because I have 

 reason to believe that in numberless instances partial desertions 

 of a limited character constantly occur in a large apiary without 

 the knowledge of the bee-cultivator, and without producing any 

 perceptible benefit or injury in the hives in which they take 

 place. 



And here I may observe how much the apiarian of the present 

 day is aided in this, as in all his other researches, into the many 

 curious phenomena which constantly present themselves in the 

 study ot the bee, by the introduction into this country, through 

 the instrumentality of Mr. Woodbury, of the yellow-banded 

 Italian. It is but very recently that I became possessed of a stock 

 of this beautiful race ; but I expect to be greatly assisted through 

 this agency in the future in investigating, in a new form some of 

 the more abstruse and scientific points pertaining to th> natural 

 history of the bee, some of which are embraced in the e German 

 Dzierzon theory of parthenogenesis. I have no wish o speak 

 unfairly or disparagingly of this theory ; but, believing tag I do 

 that there is a great principle involved in it which, however 

 plausibly argued by its votaries, and borne out by experiments 

 apparently carefully and scientifically performed, yet, coming as 

 it does into jarring collision with all which we have hitherto been 

 accustomed to hold as essential to animal reproduction, it is 

 right that the evidences brought forward in support of it should 

 be carefully weighed, tested, and tried in every possible way ere 

 it be allowed to assume a definite position in nature. No loop- 

 hole should be left unexplored so as to admit of doubt, and every 

 objection (and there are several which might be urged) should 

 be satisfactorily disposed of, which can be fairly shown to militate 

 against the conclusions deduced, which in some instances appear 

 to me to be rather assumed than proved. This, however, is all 

 by the way — a little desertion from the subject ou hand, to which 

 I must again return. 



Well, a short time ago I noticed a solitary Italian bee in one 

 of my common stocks apparently completely domesticated and 

 fraternised. I happened to he interfering with the stock in 

 some way, when forth came a few bees very furious and greatly 

 incensed at the disturbance. Eoremost among these defenders 

 appeared a yellow-striped Italian come forth to resent the insult. 

 " Ho ! ho ! my little friend, what are you doing here ? Domes- 

 ticated f Let me see." I took it on the point of my finger a 

 considerable way off to try. There — gone ! Where has it flown ? 

 To the Italian stock ? No, but to its affiliated hive from whence 

 I took it, where it was received with all friendliness. 



Desertions in autumn, I may remark, are somewhat different 

 from those which occur in spring. A Btock of bees in spring 



